Shipyard: The Combat Update -- Still Alive Over Here!

It's been a few weeks and multiple game updates since I posted here. I've instead been posting my progress on my own website, but I figured I'd remind everyone here that I'm still alive and that Shipyard has been coming along nicely since last we saw it. In fact, the release of version 0.7.4 concluded the series of "preparation" updates, and it's time to move on to the real Combat Update: version 0.8.0.

I don't care to copy-paste every progress report since the launch of the new site, but I will go over the more important changes. So, without further ado...

The ship management window now allows you to change your ship's crew and power. Currently, you can do it as often as you like. However, in the coming version, you will only be able to save your changes once per turn.

There's a new weapon: the Railgun. The Railgun is a high-damage, high-complexity fixed ballistic weapon, and the new largest weapon in the game at 5x5 tiles.

There are now AI ships in the world. At the moment, they'll follow you around harmlessly. Of course, that will all change in the coming update...

There's also a new station: the Academy. Currently a placeholder, it will eventually allow you to hire both generic crew and officers.

All that is in the game right now, but now we come to the stuff from the coming update. I haven't got much finished, but I have the beginnings of the combat screen. You can't attack yet, but it will list your weapons and tell you (A) if they can fire and (B) if no, why they can’t. In this case, my ship has a Railgun and two Torpedo Launchers which are facing the wrong way to fire at the enemy ship:

You can download the latest version and read in greater detail about the game on the Shipyard page of my website.